University of Illinois graduate student charged with felony after two campus Flock cameras spray-painted

Event: July 24, 2026 · First reported: August 24, 2026 · 1 source

Champaign County State's Attorney Julia Rietz says Mitchell Bryant, 26, of Urbana, was arrested Aug. 20 and arraigned the following day on one count of criminal damage to government-supported property, a Class 3 felony based on the value of the two damaged automated license-plate readers. Rietz said yellow spray paint was applied to the lenses of two Flock cameras on the University of Illinois campus on July 24, at the 1000 block of West Green Street and at Wright Street and Springfield Avenue. According to Rietz, University of Illinois investigators reviewed other surveillance cameras and footage from Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District buses, which they said showed an individual in a face mask, sunglasses and hard hat using a spray can tied to a pole to reach the readers roughly 10 feet off the ground, then returning to Everitt Lab and using an I-Card. Bryant, described on his LinkedIn profile as a bioengineering Ph.D. candidate, is not being detained; a preliminary hearing is set for Sept. 24. The News-Gazette said it sought comment from UI police and had not received a response.

Why this matters

The case shows how a network of campus and transit surveillance cameras can be used to build a case against someone accused of disabling ALPR devices, and it raises questions about how the felony threshold is set by camera value.

Key facts

Charge: one count of criminal damage to government-supported property, a Class 3 felony; a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 24. No findings of guilt have been made.
Rietz said the July 24 incident involved yellow spray paint over the lenses of two Flock cameras at two campus locations.
Investigators reportedly identified the suspect using other area surveillance cameras, CU Mass Transit District bus footage, and an I-Card swipe at Everitt Lab.
The UI police Flock transparency portal lists 20 license-plate readers on campus and states the devices do not use facial recognition and cannot be used for immigration or traffic enforcement, harassment, or personal use.
Portal figures cited for the prior 30 days: more than 160,000 unique vehicles detected, 142 searches, and about 1,400 hotlist hits, with sources including NCIC, Illinois LEADS and NCMEC Amber Alerts.

Sources

This summary was written from the published reporting below and links to it; BlockFlockNow does not reproduce article text.

Grad student charged with damaging campus Flock cameras (Pantagraph, August 24, 2026)

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BlockFlockNow documents reported incidents involving Flock Safety cameras and automated license plate readers: council votes, contract decisions, misuse by authorized users, lawsuits, audits, and community response. Every record is reviewed by a person before publication. New to the topic? Start with What is Flock?, find meetings near you, or learn how to request your town's camera records.

Updated August 24, 2026. Corrections: blockflock@bytebunny.io. See all documented incidents or search the full article archive.